Disclaimer: Still don't own it
Sorry for the late update but Christmas Planning kind of disrupted my schedule somewhat; expect a possible update for next Sunday instead of Saturday.
Spencer watched as Mona made sure to lock her door.
It was just after breakfast and after helping Mona's mother with the dishes, the two headed straight to the room.
The wind was still howling outside, and there was still the occasional bang against the house. The rain had stopped though but the report called for a little more later in the day. While the girls ate their food, they had heard that some parts of Rosewood had been completely shut down due to flooding thus they were temporarily trapped for now. It was supposed to clear up by tomorrow with even some sun appearing in the sky.
After locking the door, Mona smiled at Spencer as sat down on the bed. There was something off about Mona that made Spencer nervous given the change to her demeanor. It wasn't hostile in any shape or form and Spencer didn't feel that she was under threat; but her friend's new attitude seemed a little alarming. It was so secretive that Spencer was suddenly reminded of Alison in a way.
"So remember how I told you that I was sent to Radley over the summer?" Mona asked and Spencer was caught off guard by the seriousness of her question.
"Yeah; you said that you had snapped," Spencer answered, wondering about the point of the question.
"There is a little more to that story than what I told you," Mona stated as she leaned back against the bedframe.
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked, now more than curious to what her friend meant. Truthfully, she never pondered about what happened to Mona during the summer she was at Radley; chucking it up to the fact that Alison had finally broken the girl.
"I was sent to Radley Sanitarium because I was secretly harassing Alison," Mona admitted to the taller teen. Spencer blinked a couple of times, not sure what to really think about that.
"I don't remember that; Alison never said anything," Spencer stated, thinking back to when she was still a part of the group.
"That's because she was paranoid that one of you was the one behind it. You never noticed that she was acting weird just before summer?" Mona inquired.
"I don't think so," Spencer said, thinking about it.
Mona nodded and wasn't surprised that Spencer never saw it given that she was probably messed up on drugs. Mona had studied Alison vividly back then and knew that the blond liked to keep things to herself; especially when she didn't know who to trust. It was one of her main defense mechanisms when it came to her being attacked. It was also a major weakness since Spencer could have helped Alison since she was on Mona's level of intelligence.
"So what did you do exactly?" asked Spencer, more than curious. She was still forming an opinion on what Mona was telling her.
"Small stuff at first like leaving her messages telling her that she was being watched; that went on for a few days. After that, I would use her secrets against her after following the bitch around; she never once saw me," Mona explained, looking rather smug about it.
"You know Alison's secrets?" Spencer inquired, both astounded and excited at the same time. In all the years that she had been a part of her group, Spencer had never discovered any of the blonde's personal secrets.
"Just about all of them; I use to lord them over her and enjoyed watching the bitch squirm," Mona stated gleefully.
"I think I would have enjoyed seeing that," Spencer said, thinking about it. It was a shame that she had been too drugged up to notice.
"It was like a game and I loved it; even partnered up with Lucas for help," Mona told the taller teen.
"Lucas was your partner?" her friend asked, surprised that Mona had enlisted the male teen. She knew Lucas had left Rosewood High to be homeschooled and thought it was because of Alison's teasing.
"Yeah for a time; I recruited him after Alison spread that Hermie rumor around school. He was great at first but became unreliable later," Mona explained, and Spencer heard a trace of resentment in the shorter teen's tone of voice.
"So what happened?" Spencer inquired, knowing that something had to have stopped Mona since she had been sent to Radley.
"Lucas betrayed me and I was caught by my mom; she had come home and caught me in my hoodie as I was leaving the house. I made the mistake of having my notes on me and she read what I was doing; she called the doctors before I could do more to Alison," Mona explained with slight resentment. Mona couldn't hate her mother for trying to protect her but wished she would had just understood.
"So Alison never found out that it was you?" Spencer doubted it since Alison would have made sure that it was a big deal.
"No; she never found out that I was A," Mona answered, quite proud of the fact.
"A?" Spencer asked, puzzled by the name.
"A; as is Anonymous. It was what I went by when I left her my messages. I always texted her using an untraceable phone just to mess with her," Mona stated.
"Wow, and I never suspected that this was going on. I don't think the other girls knew either because one of us would have mentioned it; especially Emily since she is the most supportive of Alison," the taller teen said, shaking her head.
"Alison liked to keep her secrets and that is what I was counting on since it would have been harder to go after her if she started coordinating you girls," Mona informed and Spencer nodded in agreement. Alison knew how to manage her posse more than anyone else; the other four girls were more equal than anything else.
"So why are you telling me this now?" Spencer asked, having a feeling that she knew the answer.
"Because it is as you said; Alison needs to be stopped and I propose that we are the ones who do it," Mona said as she stared at her friend, trying to gauge her reaction.
Spencer considered the smaller teen's words and she could see the wisdom behind them. It was true that Spencer had uttered that Alison needed to be stopped but she was thinking of officials stepping in, not herself. But then again, that was the problem since no one could or would stop Alison; it had to be them.
"What do you propose we do?" Spencer asked after thinking about it for a minute, curious to know more of Mona's plans before making a commitment.
"That we start off by watching Alison and everything she does so that we find out all of her secrets. Then we use those secrets against her," Mona simply answered and it indeed sounded simplistic.
"To what end? Won't she just tell her parents and the cops be called," Spencer argued though the idea had its merits. But there was so much risk though.
"Alison has some pretty dark secrets; as you well know," Mona countered and Spencer felt her stomach tightening up at what that possibly meant.
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
"I know about what really happened to Jenna," Mona stated, though not in an accusing tone. There was also no hostility to her statement which Spencer was glad of given what had happened.
"It was an accident; we didn't know she was there," Spencer said softly and Mona gave her a look that said differently.
"Is that what Alison told you? That it was an accident? What if I was to tell you that there was more to that story than what Alison had said," the shorter girl claimed and Spencer was unsure of what Mona meant.
"I was there Mona. Toby was watching us through the window and we tried to get back at him by throwing the smoke bomb in the shed to get back at him. There was a fire and Jenna was caught in it but somehow Alison got Toby to take the blame," stated the taller teen though the last part was different from what Alison had told her at the time.
It wasn't until rehab that Spencer began to rethink what had happened that night in regards to the Jenna thing. She knew that Alison had lied about Toby taking the blame for the reasons that she had told the other girls; suspecting that Alison had blackmailed him into copping to being the perpetrator. However, even if that was true, Toby was still regarded as a pervert in her eyes who had spied on them on multiple occasions.
"Toby never spied on you at all and Alison lied in order to cover up something more," Mona said and Spencer just blinked a couple of times, not sure what to think. Looking into Mona's eyes, Spencer felt that her friend was indeed telling the truth; but still couldn't help but to disbelieve it because of the implications.
"Jenna was Alison's rival at school. You and the other girls just didn't see it because Alison had you all wrapped around her fingertips; blinded to what was going on around you. Your former friend knew that Jenna was going to be at that shed that night and planned to hurt her in order to bring her down. The Toby story was just a way to entrap you all together in case something went wrong," Mona informed, keeping her voice level. There was a bit more to the story, but Spencer didn't need to know what Jenna was doing to Toby just yet.
"She used us," Spencer whispered, putting the pieces all together.
It made sense now that she thought about it. No one saw Toby spying on the girls; ever. In fact, Spencer always found the guy kind of charming. She also always wondered how Alison knew Toby would be in the shed, since it never came up before that night. Alison had also insisted that they all take part in the prank which was unusual at the time since the blond always preferred to act on her own when it came to revenge.
But even though Spencer now knew the truth, it didn't rid her of the guilt that she felt; it just made it more intense. Even if Alison had tricked the rest of the girls, it still had felt wrong to them at the time. Unlike the blond, Spencer's parents had raised her with morals, and what she had done was wrong. Now because of her, two people's lives were now ruined forever and there was no way to make it right for them.
"It's not your fault," Mona said, seeing her friend's inner struggle.
"Yes it is," Spencer argued back softly, staring down into her lap. Maybe she deserved what had happened to her last night.
"No, it isn't. You were young and stupid; completely under Alison's control," Mona argued back, a little more harshly than she wanted but still tried to make her point.
"That doesn't excuse me though," Spencer stated and surprisingly, Mona nodded in agreement.
"You're right, it doesn't but now you have a chance to do something about it; by helping me bring the b*** down," the smaller girl said, switching gears and taking a bigger risk than she wanted. There was a chance that she might push Spencer too far and watch as she did something stupid.
Spencer just sat there and Mona watched as the taller girl contemplated on the plan being proposed. As much as it sounded so wrong, Spencer had to admit that it was very tempting despite the risks. There was a lot that could go wrong since neither of them was perfect and there was a chance that someone could get hurt. But something had to be done because Alison was out of control and it was only a matter of time that something a lot worse could happen.
"I have conditions," Spencer said after a few minutes of silence, the sound of the rain outside the only thing heard in the room.
"Of course," Mona said, shrugging her shoulders and not surprised since Lucas had the same when she first proposed this to him.
"We only act in unison once we knew everything about Alison; that means neither of us acts without the other. Also, our fight is with Alison only; no one else is to be stalked or harassed," Spencer stated and she was adamant about that. She didn't want Aria, Emily, or Hanna involved in this.
"I never planned to involve them; this is all about Alison," Mona said, somewhat disappointed at not being able to go after the rest of the girls; though also relieved since she didn't want to hurt Hanna.
"I also want to make sure that nothing harmful comes to Alison; this is about justice, not revenge," Spencer pressed since she didn't want the blond killed.
"If I wanted Alison dead, I would have taken her out years ago," Mona stated and Spencer believed her given that Mona had more reason to hate Alison than anyone. Spencer at least had friends at one time while the smaller girl was deprived of any because of the blond.
"One more thing; there are to be no secrets between us. I want to know everything you know," Spencer said, stressing the point to Mona.
"That goes both ways; you have to tell me everything as well for this to work," Mona countered, though not hostile in any way.
"Agreed; when do you want to start?" Spencer asked, happy that her friend had agreed to the conditions.
"Well if we start now then Alison will surely know it is us. So for now we just watch and record what she is doing," Mona said, happy to now have a partner that she could count on.
The two sat in the darkness of the room, making plans for the coming week. When the power went off, the two helped Mona's mother light candles throughout the house so that they could see where they needed to go. When Leona wasn't around, the two would make plans in secret so that they wouldn't be caught.
"I found you some more clothes, I hope you don't mind these sweats and grey shirt," Leona said to Spencer in Mona's room. The smaller girl was downstairs getting things ready for dinner using an old wood burning stove.
"Thank you; I appreciate you letting me stay the weekend," Spencer said to the older woman with a smile.
"After what happened last night Spencer, I am just glad you are here safe," Leona stated to the young woman.
"Well I plan to never be caught in something like that again," Spencer informed Mona's mother with full conviction.
"I am sure you have learned a great lesson, but don't let something like this make you do something that you will regret. You are better than Alison," Leona said before she left the room, leaving Spencer in the alone in the darkness.
While Spencer agreed with the woman, she felt that there was no way she was going to regret what was going to happen to Alison.
Please R&R and a thanks to Paraddicted for the pre-read!